Twisted?

I received a reply to a post I'd made on a backpacking forum which threw me for a loop. The person called my post twisted, sick and sad. He said it was propaganda and told me I'd hate the {Appalachian} Trail because it was full of "tolerance,compassion and empathy of peoples rights and the environment." Which I can quickly assume this person had none of for me but expected me to offer to him and others. The response was mean-spirited and crucially intolerant.

Someone explain to me why the "progressive socialists" insist that others be tolerant but that they don't have to show the same tolerance toward those with whom they disagree.

No one who is honest can claim to be tolerant in every situation. Unless that person is dead. Everyone has issues which he is willing to tolerate and those which he refuses to tolerate.

Personally, I really can't tolerate people who litter and toss garbage and broken appliances on back roads or leave old cars to rust and leach chemicals into the ground water. But then, that's just me.

I can't tolerate people who can't discuss a topic without bringing up their political agenda. I'm not talking about personal posting on a blog, I'm talking about a public or private forum not remotely connected to politics. But again, that's just me.

I can't tolerate people who disparage religion and faith. If a person has no basis for his morality, then how does he choose what is right and what is wrong? I don't tolerate situational ethics, either. Again, that's just me.

Add to that: I can't tolerate people who insist that it's their 'god-given' right to kill those who refuse to convert to their 'religion' {of peace}. I tolerate freedom of religion. If you want to believe one way and you can live in peace and harmony with others who believe differently, I can tolerate that. But my tolerance stops where you start demanding that your religion is the original religion and I have no choice but to believe as you do . . . or you'll kill me. But then, that's me.

Yup, I'm intolerant and that short list doesn't begin to list the issues of my intolerance. Read the blog and you'll quickly see where my tolerance crosses the line into intolerance.

And I guess the coup d'etat is that I have been removed as a member of the very backpacking forum where this mean-spirited response was made.

What did I do? I don't have a copy of my original post. I recall being excited about Thru Hiking the Appalachian Trail when I wrote it. And I wrote about hiking an innovative way -- by time and not distance. Maybe that was it -- I thought outside the box and the other person wasn't capable of a paradigm shift.